Could Star Wars Come to TV?

Since Disney acquired Lucasfilm back in October, pundits and fans have mostly discussed the upcoming seventh installment of the Star Warsfranchise. While the quest for the perfect director continues, though, ABC has shared news that is arguably just as exciting: They are considering a Star Wars TV show. Why is that just as exciting? Last summer, Lucasfilm’s then-producer Rick McCallum described it as being like “Deadwood in space.” One could make the case that in this post-Sopranos world, TV, rather than the movies, is where the Star Wars franchise could be most successfully revisited. And with Disney now holding the reins, we could see such a series in production sooner rather than later.

Before Disney bought Lucasfilm, 50 scripts overseen by McCallum and Lucas were shelved, deemed too expensive for television. Part of what made the show so expensive is that a network would have had to pay Lucasfilm in order to license their rights to the franchise. Now that Disney owns those rights, the middle man is eliminated, and the estimated costs are significantly lower. McCallum has since left Lucasfilm, but ABC Entertainment president Paul Lee is reportedly eager to take a look at those scripts soon.

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With the new film due out in 2015, there is some concern about oversaturation. But Lee has talked about bringing the Star Wars universe back to audiences in a more “oblique” fashion, similar to the way Disney has handled its ownership of Marvel Comics. “We got to a point here with Marvel, a very special point, where we’re in the Marvel universe, and very relevantly so,” he said. “But we’re not doing The Avengers [on TV]. But S.H.I.E.L.D. [the upcoming Joss Whedon superhero TV show] is part of The Avengers.”

Star Wars has graced television screens before—the animated spin-off Star Wars: The Clone Warsis in its fifth season, and no one who has seen the campy, absurd 1978 Christmas special could possibly forget it—but a more serious take on the franchise could breathe fresh life into the universe, whatever happens at the multiplex.

Aisha Harris is a Slate culture writer and host of the Slate podcast Represent.